Louisiana sees marginal gain in English LEAP scores, stagnant for math and science scores

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – School leaders have touted the latest batch of newly released LEAP scores, while advocates said there is still much work to be done.

Louisiana saw minor improvements in student English test scores in 2024, while scores for math and science mostly stayed the same.

For grades 3-8, about 43 percent of students statewide achieved “mastery” in the English language arts test, a marginal improvement year-over-year. For the same grade levels, about 31 percent of students statewide achieved mastery in the math test, while about 28.5 percent of students achieved mastery in the science test.

“Mastery” is the state standard for proficiency.

The return to nearly pre-pandemic English scores was noteworthy for education leaders, who pointed to efforts to increase literacy among younger populations.

“Following consecutive years of improvement, these latest scores show students holding steady,” said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “With a need to see increased outcomes, however, these numbers substantiate our recent aggressive efforts to simply let teachers teach, provide students with high-dosage tutoring, refresh our school accountability model, and expand options for students to access high-quality schools.”

The 2024 LEAP scores can be found here.

The Coronavirus pandemic was a major disrupter for school systems nationwide, with school leaders acknowledging recovery is still a work in progress.

“The latest LEAP data released today is encouraging, with overall performance holding steady in line with recent achievement gains. With improvement confirmed in early grades, Louisiana’s emphasis on literacy initiatives and fundamental skills development is beginning to bear fruit,” said Ronnie Morris, President of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“The availability and accessibility of quality K-12 options is a strength of Louisiana’s system, in which families are empowered to provide the best learning environment for their children.”

About 36 percent of high school students achieved mastery across all subjects (English I, English II, Algebra I, Geometry, U.S. History and Biology).

“People have different learning styles, and we’re teaching to one, which is mostly lecture. The things we already know to do, we need to implement them. We just need to implement best practices,” said Ashana Bigard, a parent of two children in the Orleans Parish education system and a longtime education advocate.

“I know everybody’s going to focus on the one percent growth but considering how much money was poured into the system overall, there definitely needs to be more growth.”

Bigard said the results are not consistent with the amount of state and federal dollars that has been poured into education since the pandemic.

“We do have a lot of good teachers, we do have a lot of good people trying very hard, but they don’t have the resources,” she said. “We don’t have the small class sizes. We don’t have the books.”

But education researchers note there is a nationwide trend of low-test scores.

“We’re basically back to where we were pre-pandemic, and that’s a lot better than most states can say, so that’s a plus,” said Douglas Harris, chair of the economics department at Tulane University and director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.

“We still see improvement after years of continuous improvement, that’s like unusual. You don’t usually see states improving consistently over time, even to a small degree,” he said. “You’ve got the high absence rate, you’ve got students more stuck on their phones, mental health issues, and I think teaching has become less attractive.”

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